No Hungarian GP earlier than 2024 - Return to Hungaroring?
It has been 30 years since the MotoGP visited Hungary. For several years, there was work for a way to bring back the race event in the eastern european country. Now, it seems, another attempt has failed.
Due to the current economical situation in Hungary, the eastern european country has cut its expenses down by two billion euros. This includes the round about 150 million euros that were supposed to help finance a new race track for a MotoGP event.
A huge step towards a #MotoGP return to Hungary in 2023! 🇭🇺
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) March 4, 2021
Dorna Sports CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta has met József Pacza, the CEO of Kelet Magzarorszàg Versenypálya Kft, in Budapest to sign an agreement to host a Grand Prix in a new circuit close to Debrecen! pic.twitter.com/2koWNYOuaG
Furthermore, the project has been shuffled around several Hungarian ministries to the point where the compensation payments for the property owners aren’t even fully handled yet.
Due to the massive delay, building work won’t begin before early 2023. As Adam Steinmerz, MP of Hungarian opposition party Jobbik, stated: “It is impossible to organize races here in 2023.”
A Grand Prix before 2024 is therefore not achievable. And even finishing the track for a race in 2024 will have to be drastically rushed. On top of that, the Hungarian opposition is not on board for the project going ahead as planned.
As Steinmerz stated in Atlaszo, he does not consider it realistic to build the track by expropriating and concreting over good farmland. “Especially since there is another, only partly finished race track.”
It is not the first time, promoter Dorna tried a comeback to Hungary. Back in 2009, a race on the Balatonring was planned. However, the track never got finished and the whole project was cancelled later.
Hope the new Hungarian MotoGP venue gets further than the last one. The Balatonring secured the rights to host a Hungarian MotoGP round in 2009. GFC helped kill the development, which ended with $16m of debt and got no further than this pic.twitter.com/z64cY1nPIy
— Mat Oxley (@matoxley) March 20, 2021
According to Hungarian media outlets, a similar end to the newly started project in Hungary could be around a corner. Supposedly, Dorna considerates a comeback to the Hungaroring to minimize cost.
The old track near Budapest would have to be heavily adapted, but the financial outlay would be significantly lower than a newly build track.
